Soil Scientists

  Optimized organic–inorganic fertilization integrates the benefits of organic amendments with balanced mineral nutrients to improve soil health and wheat productivity simultaneously. This approach enhances soil carbon sequestration by increasing organic matter inputs, stabilizing carbon within soil aggregates, and stimulating beneficial microbial activity that promotes carbon retention. Improved nutrient synchronization boosts nitrogen use efficiency, supports root development, and enhances soil structure, leading to better water retention and reduced nutrient losses. As a result, wheat crops exhibit higher biomass accumulation, improved grain yield, and greater resilience to environmental stresses. Overall, optimized organic–inorganic fertilization represents a sustainable strategy to enhance long-term soil fertility, mitigate climate change through carbon storage, and ensure stable wheat production in intensive agroecosystems. Hashtags: #SoilCarbonSequestration #WheatProductiv...

  Fungal genomic trait-based ecological strategies play a pivotal role in regulating plant productivity by shaping nutrient acquisition, stress tolerance, and soil–plant interactions. Variations in fungal genomes, such as gene families associated with extracellular enzyme production, nutrient transporters, secondary metabolite synthesis, and symbiotic signaling, determine whether fungi adopt competitive, mutualistic, or stress-tolerant ecological strategies. Mycorrhizal fungi with genomes enriched in phosphorus and nitrogen acquisition traits enhance plant nutrient uptake and growth, while saprotrophic fungi with strong decomposer gene repertoires accelerate organic matter turnover and nutrient release. In contrast, pathogenic or opportunistic fungi possess genomic traits that influence host defense modulation and resource capture, indirectly affecting plant performance. These trait-based strategies are highly responsive to environmental conditions, enabling fungal communities to a...

  Biotic reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a crucial role in driving arsenic oxidation in paddy soils, especially under the dynamic redox conditions created by flooding and drainage cycles. Soil microorganisms, plant roots, and associated rhizosphere processes actively generate ROS such as hydrogen peroxide, superoxide radicals, and hydroxyl radicals during respiration, root exudation, and microbial metabolism. These biotically produced ROS can rapidly oxidize the more mobile and toxic arsenite (As³⁺) to arsenate (As⁵⁺), which has a stronger affinity for iron (hydr)oxides and soil minerals. As a result, arsenic becomes less mobile and less bioavailable, reducing its uptake by rice plants. The interaction between microbial activity, iron redox cycling, and root-induced oxygen release enhances ROS production, creating microsites of intense arsenic transformation. This process highlights the importance of biological controls over arsenic speciation in paddy soils and underscores how ...

  Coastal wetland plant–soil systems play a critical role in maintaining ecosystem stability while facing increasing environmental stressors such as salinity intrusion, flooding, nutrient loading, pollution, and climate change. Wetland plants respond to these stresses through physiological and morphological adaptations, including salt exclusion, osmotic adjustment, aerenchyma development, and altered root architecture, which help maintain oxygen transport and nutrient uptake under waterlogged conditions. Simultaneously, soil properties such as redox potential, organic matter dynamics, microbial activity, and nutrient cycling are strongly influenced by plant responses and stress intensity. Environmental stress can shift soil biogeochemical processes, affecting carbon sequestration, nitrogen transformation, and sulfur cycling, with direct feedbacks on plant productivity and resilience. The close coupling between plants and soils enables coastal wetlands to buffer extreme conditions, ...

  Synergistic agricultural systems—such as integrated crop–livestock farming, diversified crop rotations, agroforestry, and the combined use of organic amendments with precision nutrient management—play a critical role in improving soil health and enabling sustainable land use in sandy soils. These systems enhance soil organic matter inputs through residues, manures, cover crops, and root biomass, which improves aggregate stability, water-holding capacity, and resistance to erosion—key limitations of sandy soils. Biological synergy among plants, soil microorganisms, and beneficial fauna stimulates nutrient cycling, increases microbial biomass and enzyme activity, and reduces nutrient leaching by synchronizing nutrient release with crop demand. The inclusion of legumes and deep-rooted species enhances nitrogen fixation, nutrient capture from deeper layers, and carbon sequestration, while reduced tillage and residue retention protect fragile soil structure. Collectively, these integr...